Conference Program

The paper presents a Research-Training (R-T) experience aimed at the professional development of teachers through a model of situated technological training, centered on the reflective integration of educational technologies, the systematic use of metaphors as heuristic knowledge devices (Strongoli, 2017; Pillera & Strongoli, 2025), and the employment of the Research-Training Self-Assessment Sheet (SARF). The intervention is situated within an epistemological framework that conceptualizes teacher professionalism as a complex and dynamic construct grounded in the interaction among disciplinary, pedagogical, and technological knowledge, consistent with the TPACK framework, which is adopted as an implicit theoretical and methodological reference for the training design (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; De Rossi & Messina, 2016; Mishra, 2019). The training experience was designed in accordance with the research-training paradigm, understood as a methodological device capable of linking the production of scientific knowledge, professional development, and the transformation of practices within authentic contexts (Asquini, 2018; Dodman et al., 2025). The research design follows a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative and qualitative instruments within a recursive and longitudinal framework. It includes ex-ante and ex-post surveys, co-design phases, classroom experimentation, and systematic reflection on teaching practice (Vannini, 2021), thereby configuring a cyclical model of professional learning.

A central role is assigned to the SARF - used here in an adapted version - tool, employed as a reflective and metacognitive device to support the critical analysis of practices, the evaluation of project feasibility, and the development of awareness regarding teachers’ decision-making processes. Beyond its function as an assessment tool, the SARF serves as an epistemic artifact that structures professional reflection, fostering the conversion of experience into shared and transferable pedagogical knowledge. At the same time, the study foregrounds the metaphorical device as a means of investigating latent beliefs, implicit representations, and mental models that inform teaching practices. Metaphors are understood as deep cognitive structures capable of rendering visible teachers’ practical epistemologies and documenting their evolution over time. The analysis of metaphorical trajectories reveals a shift from technocentric and instrumental conceptions of technology toward more complex, intentional, and design-oriented representations, in which innovation is framed as a structural process rather than an episodic occurrence. The findings indicate a significant reconfiguration of professional orientations, characterized by the transition from additive models of innovation to transformative ones, from the technical use of digital tools to pedagogically intentional design, and from the passive adoption of methodologies to forms of informed teacher agency.